Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Frozen World
by Poke Ball Z Online
Summary: We know the story of how Darkrai turned this world into a land of frozen darkness, but what happened in the aftermath before our hero arrived? A tyrannic god opposed by a small amount of Pokemon in rebellion? Two unlikely heroes, joining forces to protect the world from death? A prequel story to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky. (I do not own Pokemon)
1. Lost Friends

**Hello everyone, PokeBallZOnline here!**

 **Unfortunately, I have stopped work on Legends of the Super Saiyan, I was too unmotivated to continue and ultimately couldn't think of anything to add to the story that wasn't either already in the original Dragon Ball Z or had been done already by other fanfictions. However, over the months I have rediscovered the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series that I have played as a child and there is such a wonderful story and so many unanswered questions that I thought I would write down a fanfiction on it to share with people.**

 **Without further ado, I present Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Frozen World!**

* * *

 _Imagine… A world if you will, where the sun never rises, the wind never blows, Pokemon have gone crazy and just lost the will to live and this whole darn place is ruled over by a corrupted, rage-filled god. It sounds bad, doesn't it? Unfortunately, that's just the way it is. Primal Dialga used fear, fear to sway the few Pokemon left in this domain to his will. No one can stand up to him or his henchmen. My name is Absol, I am one of the few Pokemon from the thawed past to make it to this hellish nightmare…_

The white-maned Pokemon leaped up onto one of the ledges overlooking a dungeon. Dark Hill was it's name. Absol could easily go in there a lot and train as most of the Pokemon in this dungeon were Ghost-types, weak against Dark-types such as Absol. However, he knew that this would only make him as cold-hearted and blooded as they were. He sighed and leapt into the shadows with the stealth of a ninja, looking up at the thesis of all the pain that he- no, all the Pokemon of the future felt, the once almighty Temporal Tower crumbled to nothing more than a pile of rubble and concrete floating in the sky.

He remembered the days before the tower fell. He was a loner, that was for sure. Every time he appeared, he became known as a bad omen, he even remembered being persecuted as an outlaw before. His dark-typing just served to make him even more suspicious.

" _Heh, there sure were a lot of natural disasters in the day."_ Absol muttered to himself. Of course, now he knew the reason for this; the sky meteor plummeting towards the Earth. Absol ended up working with Charlie and Charmy to solve the problem. Together, they had taken down legendaries like Rayquaza and Groudon like it was nothing. Ah, Charlie, the mysterious Bulbasaur who'd been turned from a human into a Pokemon and Charmy, the energetic Charmander, an inspirational leader for all the rescue teams who never gave up hope until the very end. Not for the first time, Absol wished his species didn't live so long. Charlie and Charmy may have had the power and will to defeat legendary Pokemon, but even they weren't immune to the demon that was old age, it seemed

Then, the dam burst. The normally stoic and nonchalant Pokemon broke down into tears, sobbing loudly for all the world to hear. He didn't give a crap if the wild Pokemon found him and attacked. He only wanted his old friends back, the ones who accepted him as a fellow saviour of the world and most importantly, the only people who accepted him as anything more than a disaster bringing demon. His feet tore at the frozen ground beneath him. Who cared if he broke this world trying to calm himself, it could go to hell for all he cared, it **was** hell

"Three...hundred...years," he murmured in between sobs, "three hundred years I've had to deal with this-this Arceus awful loneliness." He opened his crimson eyes and looked at the pitch sky, seeming to see Charlie and Charmy smiling there, "do you what that's like?" he howled "do you know what it's like to discover friendship and compassion only to have it ripped away by some natural occurrence and exiled forever in a land where everyone shuns me and I have to work by myself in order to survive! You would have known what to do, you could have found out what the problem was, went to Temporal Tower and stopped the destruction of time!"

Having vented every bit of anger he had, Absol fled back into Chasm Cave, hoping that he could find some food to salvage. After all, that was his only purpose now: to live a life without purpose. After all, he couldn't sense any more disasters since earthquakes and tsunamis didn't exactly happen in a frozen timescape, so that was all he could do for now.

However, there was a fatal flaw in his plan: he failed to see the three ominous red eyes that were locked firmly on to him…

* * *

 _Meanwhile, up at Temporal Tower_

A heated discussion was taking place in the shadows. One of the participants was a ghostly, witch-like being with malicious looking yellow eyes and a jewelled necklace around her, just hovering there in front of the metallic god of time, who stood imposingly at several feet above his Ghost-type servant with several chrome accents running down his legs and a red jewel on his stomach to symbolise his loss of control over time. Mismagius gulped, she knew that Dialga wasn't happy (well, actually she knew he was never happy, he just looked more angered than usual).

"What is your wish, Master Dialga?" She asked him

"THE REBELLION CONTINUES TO GROW," Dialga roared, "WE NEED AN EXECUTIONER, ONE WHO IS POWERFUL ENOUGH TO TRAVEL THROUGH THIS DYSTOPIAN WORLD AND PUNISH THOSE WHO WISH TO CHANGE HISTORY AND ERASE ALL OF US."

Mismagius scowled of course. She hated the rebellion of the future. They were nothing but kamikazes, what was the point of making time flow again if it would kill them all again anyway? She just didn't get it.

"OK," She was ready to listen to her master's orders, no matter what the cost was, "what Pokemon did you have in mind?

"I HAVE CHECKED USING MY TELEPATHIC POWERS," the god replied, "IN THE DEPTHS OF DARK HILL, THERE LIVES AN EXTREMELY POWERFUL DUSCLOPS, HE HUNTS FOR FOOD FROM THE OTHER GHOST-TYPE POKEMON AND WISHES TO FIND THE REAPER CLOTH THAT IS RUMORED TO BE HIDDEN SOMEWHERE IN THE HILL!"

Dialga then showed Mismagius an astral image of the Pokemon in question using his abilities. She saw a bright flash of light, then the inside of Dark Hill. The Pokemon in question had a dark, intimidating, ominous look to him and looked like he was wrapped in bandages, like a mummy. Of course, she knew that it was just a ghostly veil. But he also had wispy protrusions extending out of his head and his back

Suddenly, four Ghost-types rose out of the shadows and the walls to challenge Dusclops, being Haunter, Gengar, Misdreavus and Banette. Without a word, just nods, the wild Pokemon rushed in for the attack, all forming shadowy blobs in front of them with their hands and/or mouths and firing at Dusclops, causing a massive explosion.

"Well, so much for that idea," Mismagius remarked. She knew no Ghost-type Pokemon could withstand a Shadow Ball at that close range, let alone four. She was about to remark to Dialga that Dusclops was dead and therefore could not be the executioner they were looking for, but was suddenly interrupted by a huge roar from the temporal Pokemon

"QUIET MISMAGIUS!" Dialga roared "REMEMBER THAT YOU'RE TALKING TO THE GOD AND PROTECTOR OF THIS FUTURE!"

"S-Sorry Master Dialga," Mismagius stammered in fear apologetically, "it won't happen again, I promise."

"GOOD," Dialga nodded sternly, "NOW CONTINUE WATCHING!"

Much to Mismagius' surprise, Dusclops had evaded the Shadow Balls completely, almost seeming to Teleport behind the ghosts. He then created a fist with his hand, encased it in shadow and slammed it into Gengar like a block of iron, knocking the lead Pokemon out almost immediately.

"Woah," Mismagius gasped, "I've never seen anyone able to master Shadow Sneak like that. To attack with it is one thing but to teleport with it…" her voice trailed off, she was clearly in awe.

The three ghosts clearly showed the same reaction as Mismagius, unnerved that their boss had been taken out so easily. However, they had to survive and for that to work, they had to eliminate all rivals, including Dusclops.

"Heh, that was just a lucky shot, upstart." the Banette taunted.

"I fail to see how luck is a factor," Dusclops retorted, "Shadow Punch never misses."

"Well," said the Haunter in a deep, ominous voice, "no matter how accurate your fancy, schmancy Shadow Punch is, I highly doubt you could use it on all three of us at once."

"Yeah," Misdreavus grinned, "and your sh*tty teleportation move won't help you against this barrage at all." With that, all three remaining Ghost-types began to charge up their respective black Shadow Balls again, fully intending to murder Dusclops and take his supplies for themselves.

Dusclops looked at the pitiful fools charging their pitiful attacks and he said something extremely ominous; "Do you fools really want to experience death a second time, because do you know all of those rumors concerning me, saying that I am the void and the bringer of doom and nothingness, they are all correct!"

With that, Dusclops began to form his own Shadow Ball in front of him. However, something was extremely different between their powers. In just three seconds, Dusclops' Shadow Ball was twice as powerful as one of their balls and it was worse. The Shadow Ball came with it's own gravity, sucking everything that was there towards Dusclops, the wind was enormous and Haunter, being the lightest of the trio, was getting sucked towards it very quickly due to his low resistance to the wind.

"Haunter!" Misdreavus yelled in a state of utter fear, "hang in there!"

But it was no use, Haunter was nothing but a fly getting blown into a wind turbine and with a final scream, the Shadow Ball being produced by him was rendered to nothing and he, along with Gengar who couldn't resist the gravity due to being knocked out were sent tumbling into the abyss. However the most horrifying part of the ball was when Haunter and Gengar touched it, they disappeared moaning and all of a sudden, there was a flash of white light and the Shadow Ball gained a sizable burst in power. It was then that the ones that were watching realised that Haunter and Gengar had been absorbed by the Shadow Ball to increase its power.

"Banette!" Misdreavus turned to her partner, "we have to fire our Shadow Balls!"

Her partner nodded and they fired the spheres at the Requiem Pokemon. However, Dusclops had had enough.

"I've had enough of your puny power," the ghost echoed, "Now die again!"

With that, Dusclops fired his Shadow Ball, as big as himself now at the two. They never stood a chance as the Shadow Ball absorbed their own and then them. The Shadow Ball then exploded, destroying the Pokemon's souls and their spirits in one meshed together, horrible, moaning scream. Dusclops then left the room, continuing his search for the scarce amount of food in the future. "Maybe," he muttered to himself, "just maybe today will be the day that I find the elusive Reaper Cloth…"

Mismagius pulled away from the vision, the landscape of Temporal Tower returning to her once more. She was aware of an ache in her chest and was aware that it was sympathy for the Pokemon who had lost their lives against Dusclops _"But no,"_ She gritted her teeth, she didn't have time for emotions, _"this is a kill or be-killed world, those ghosts just challenged someone more powerful than them, that's all."_ She turned to Dialga, her emotion gone. "How do you propose we persuade Dusclops to join us then?"

"AS YOU HAVE SEEN, DUSCLOPS IS IN SEARCH OF THE REAPER CLOTH HIDDEN IN DARK HILL," Dialga replied, "TELL HIM OF THE REBELLION, OF HOW THEY WANT ALL POKEMON OF THE FUTURE DEAD. LIKE MOST OTHER POKEMON HERE, HE WILL BE BUILT ON SELF-PRESERVATION, THE NEED TO SURVIVE. I HAVE TELEPATHICALLY COMMUNICATED LUXRAY AND SABLEYE, THEY WILL BE WAITING AT YOU AT THE ENTRANCE OF DARK HILL. LUXRAY WILL BE ABLE TO SEE THROUGH WALLS SO IF HE SEES THE REAPER CLOTH, YOU MUST USE YOUR GHOST-TYPING TO GO THROUGH THE WALL TO GET IT. I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT THE REAPER CLOTH WILL GIVE HIM MORE POWER, BUT HE MUST PROMISE TO PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO ME FIRST."

"OK, Master Dialga," Mismagius smirked, _"it was strange,"_ she thought, she felt both happy and scared at the same time, happy because if they were able to get this Dusclops on their side, the war against the rebellion would shift massively in their favour and scared because if they didn't, Dusclops had a chance of eliminating her. She knew that as of now, she was the most powerful of the spies that lived in the future world, but if even she went down fighting Dusclops, then what were Luxray and especially Sableye going to do to him.

 _"Well, I guess going up against a fighting prodigy is never easy."_ she sighed as she turned from Dialga and began the long descent downwards from Temporal Tower to Dark Hill, failing to notice Primal Dialga turning around and looking angrily at the broken platform on the tower, where five identical gear-shaped holes lay there, completely unmoving.


	2. Remorseless

Chasm Cave was… to be honest, quite easy for Absol. First of all, the Ghost-types in that dungeon were easily felled by Absol's Night Slash and everything else was easily taken care of due to the Ice Beam Technical Machine the Pokemon had picked up over at Sky Tower. However, Absol still had to be wary of staying on the path that the dungeon had. After all, it wasn't called Chasm Cave for nothing; there were no walls in-between the pathways and the rooms, only the seemingly bottomless pit between Temporal Tower and the area that surrounded it, meaning that it only took one wrong step for Absol to fall, possibly forever to his doom. Luckily, Absol had been through Chasm Cave many time to gather what little supplies were left

"Heh, this is getting too easy," Absol remarked as he formed a ball of ice-cold energy in front of his mouth and launched a beam at a wild Onix, knocking out the massive rock snake. It fell with a roar, showing it's pain, but Absol spared its life, he wasn't going to become a mindless killer like the other Pokemon of the future were doing and he still felt sympathy for everyone that was trapped, " _now with all the power I have, why can't I do anything to help the paralysed planet! I've killed many of Dialga's spies, now why can't I just save time! I'm strong for all the wrong reasons!"_ he thought angrily

However, maybe it was a Pokemon thing or maybe it was a thing that they'd adapted to because of the dark future, but Absol felt his senses tingling, like he was being watched every step of the way, his crimson eyes kept scanning the walls like radar vision and the sensing only got worse as time went on. Every step of the way it seemed, Absol saw a shadow fly by here, a glint of red there, the whole experience was very unnerving for him…

Eventually, it got to a point where Absol reached the end of the Cave in a small room where the void was all around him, he was looking around, very cautiously, his black head tilting from side to side, the sense that he was in danger hadn't gone away; it was still there following him as if it were a homing device.

"Who's there!" Absol yelled "stop being cowards and just come on out!"

"He's found us…" one of the voices in the darkness seemed to whisper, "there is no point in hiding anymore!

At once, three Pokemon leaped out of the shadows of the room, ready to attack. Absol identified the one in the center as a Weavile because of its sharp claws, red headdress and dark body. The one on the left flapped around on four wings and was a violet, purple shaded colour, _definitely a Crobat_ , Absol thought, and the final one looked a lot like a praying mantis, with sharp blades on their arms and a lime green colour to boot " _Scyther,"_ Absol continued on his train of thought as the three Pokemon stared him down menacingly, " _I have a major numbers and type disadvantage against these guys, I'd better be on guard,"_ for now though, he decided to speak to unnerve the Pokemon, "so, I'm assuming you guys work as Dialga's lackeys as well?"

At this point, the three started laughing their heads off.

"Well," Absol grimaced, annoyed, " _what do these three want with me?"_

Once the laughter had died down, Weavile decided to speak up, "No," he replied, "we don't work for Dialga, he's far too scary for our liking."

"But," continued the Scyther, "we are bounty hunters and I bet Dialga would give us a hefty sum of money for delivering him the one who has been murdering his most trusted and most reliable agents who is also a **demon** who brings disaster." he said the word demon with vehemence, as if there was bile in his throat, "You see, we aren't on a particular side, we just work for whoever pays us the most."

"So," the Crobat finished, "we're going to knock you out and bring you to Primal Dialga to get our sum of money, you can choose if you want to fight back, but we suggest giving in, after all, you are at a large numbers disadvantage and Scyther here has you beaten when it comes to type matchups." He nodded at the mantis.

Absol glared them down with a look that could make even Arceus cringe in fear, then, he started with his speech. "You have freedom, a chance to forage and do what you want in this messed up world, yet you **choose** to work for and enforce Dialga's authority! You disgust me!" he yelled angrily, he leapt down like a lion and started pacing around the three to intimidate them, "I have no quarrel with those who are not forced under Dialga's foot, leave now and I will let you go!"

There was a beat of silence, and for a few seconds, Absol thought that the bounty hunters were actually beginning to consider his warning. Then, Weavile attacked.

With a roar, the weasel compressed solid chunks of ice and hurled them at Absol faster than he could blink, catching him off guard and impacting him in the fleece and lowering his body temperature somewhat. Of course, Ice Shard wasn't meant to be a very powerful Ice-type attack. Only a preemptive strike, a warning.

However, Absol roared in response. " _These bandits got their warning from me, now they must suffer the consequences."_ he was remorseless, he had been ever since setting foot in this hell. Quickly, he formed a sword above his head, planning to raise his attack power so they would come in close range and be finished off with a single stroke, but he never predicted the strategy that his opponents would use.

Suddenly, the Scyther began moving rapidly until it moved at a pace where it was virtually fading in and out of reality, but that wasn't all. Suddenly, Weavile and Crobat were doing the same thing, the boosted speed being passed on to them in addition!

"What?" Absol was surprised as he bent his knees and readied a Night Slash, preparing to attack while looking from left to right and trying to detect where his opponents' next moves would come from, " _Damn it,"_ he swore under his breath through gritted teeth " _that Scyther, it must have used Agility to boost its teams speed!"_ he was ready to use Detect in preparation for the Pokemon's attack, but he was too late. In a flash, the Crobat flitted in front of him, opened it's mouth and released a multicoloured, dazzling light at him.

At this point, everything around Absol became blurred, the Pokemon could see two Scythers, two Crobats and two Weaviles, all coming in and out of focus for him. He tried to use Night Slash to incapacitate them, but it seemed as though every time he tried this, the afterimages would just fade away and his horn found no solid ground. Thinking clearly was incoherent to him at this point, all he could do was continue attacking relentlessly. In simpler terms, he was completely helpless.

"You should have listened to Crobat, goodbye **demon**!" Scyther hissed. The last thing Absol ever saw was Scyther's grinning face before a white flash of light cleaved through his vision from right to left and cut through his eyes, completely robbing him of his sight.

If Absol was berserk before, it was nothing compared to the state Scyther's slashing attack left him in, he still felt the liquid dripping down his face from his eyes and he smelt it as well, it was the scent of blood, even though he was in shock because all he could see was darkness and not just the darkness of the frozen future either, he literally felt pitch black darkness slice through every part of his vision. In a vicious frenzy, crying out in pain, he spun around and tossed from side to side, activating his Night Slash in the process. Normally, Crobat would be able to dodge the attack, but Absol had no control over his actions and the speed burst she had gotten from Scyther was starting to wear out so before Crobat could even process what was happening, Absol landed his Night Slash and felt his horn tear through the bat's purple flesh. He heard a scream, felt an explosion of the coppery liquid he had tasted before and felt a dull thud as the body fell to the floor in front of him.

With this, Absol hesitated in his blindness induced rampage as Crobat's fading screeches of pain filled his eardrums and were soon silenced " _Did I?"_ Absol asked himself, " _did I just kill a Pokemon that wasn't evil? Who just wanted to survive in this place along with everyone else? But, that goes against my very ideals, the very things that Charlie and Charmy taught me!"_

However, this momentary lapse of regret soon faded as he continued his craze filled rampage with Night Slash, only this time, adding Ice Beam to the mix. He fired everywhere because he had about as much control over his actions right now as Primal Dialga had. All that remained was the instinct to finish everything off around him, Weavile and Scyther didn't dare to attack Absol or even come close to him in this state as they realised their mistake of blinding the poor Pokemon and sure enough, one of the Ice Beams hit Scyther on the wing and down he fell with a cry, his wing encrusted in ice therefore making him less mobile.

"Come on," he panted, shaking Scyther and clearly tired of all the dodging he had to do, "we can't even get close to this guy, let alone finish him off, we should flee."

"B-but what about Crobat?" the Scyther asked, pointing his scythe weakly at his dissected partner and showing his clear reluctance to leave his partner just lying there.

"There's nothing we can do for her," the Weavile responded harshly, "she's dead. At least the demon is dying of blood loss now, I'll come back and bring him to Dialga when he calms down and is knocked unconscious."

"You?" Scyther asked weakly, "we're a team Weavile, we do things together!"

"Oh yeah," Weavile rolled his eyes, "there's one more thing I have to do," without further ado, Weavile brought his arm back, activated a Metal Claw and stabbed Scyther through the chest with his claw, completely impaling him and causing Scyther to cough up blood that splashed in the weasel's face."

"What…" Scyther gasped weakly, "Weavile...but...why…"

Weavile didn't say a word, he just retracted his metal claw from Scyther's chest, picked the green bug up and threw his screaming, dying carcass at the still berserk Absol. Needless to say, the dying mantis fell onto Absol, causing the feline to rear up and slash Scyther in half, instantly killing the already wounded mantis. Weavile, showing no remorse for his actions, started to walk back along the road that lead to the innermost clearing of Chasm Cave, dodging the Ice Beams from the Absol, who was now starting to run out of energy to use his attacks.

" _Those fools,"_ Weavile thought to himself about his so-called 'companions,' " _didn't they realise that to get all the money for bringing the demon to Dialga, I would have had to murder both of them at one point? Those fools end up caring about their teammates far too much, all I was doing this for was the money, not to gain friends who will slow me down. This is a tough world, and for people to survive in this world, you gotta harden your heart and care about nobody but yourself. I only look out for myself…"_ Weavile then continued to trudge along, silent as if his tongue had been ripped out.

By the time Weavile had left Chasm Cave, Absol had lost all his energy in his berserk rage, almost falling off the cliff that led to the void and nothingness. There was something sad about the way he lay sprawled across the ground, devoid of moving, except for his ragged breath and faint heartbeat, which was slowly getting weaker as time went on. The blood spilling out of his eye sockets and Crobat and Scyther's bisected body painted the ground into the picture that he, Crobat and Scyther were not enemies, but comrades, comrades who had met some some enemy that was too much for them in a dungeon and met an unpleasant end.

Fortunately just when it seemed that the Disaster Pokemon had finally met his fate, a green, lizard-based Pokemon, with yellow eyes, blades made of leaves on his arms and a brown satchel hanging over his arm came dashing into the clearing, his pupils dilated into black slits. When he saw how badly Absol, Scyther and Crobat were injured, he couldn't help but gasp out in shock, his mouth was just… open at the brutality of what could have done this.

"Oh my Arceus!" he gasped worriedly, rushing over to where Absol was sprawled, one of his legs dangling precariously over the void. The other two Pokemon were gone, even the hopeful lizard could see that no one could survive being viciously torn in half like that. However, he realised there was still hope for one who had just gotten his eyes viciously torn out and his hopes were confirmed when he felt Absol's chest and while it was shallow and hard to hear at first, he definitely detected a pulse "I came because I thought something was amiss at Chasm Cave, thank Arceus I came here in time!" He then proceeded to pull a berry out of his satchel. It was round and had a cyan blue colouring to it. "Here," the reptile said, his voice still edged with a hint of worry for his fellow Pokemon, "eat this, it won't heal your eyes, but it will hopefully save you from death."

He had to open the feline's sharp-toothed mouth to be able to get him to chew the berry up and from the looks of things, it worked just the way the lizard had said it would, the lesser wounds that Absol had sustained in the previous battle started to slowly seal up and his heart, breathing rate and temperature started to increase again as he attained a faint, green glow attributed with healing. In contrast, the gaps in his eyes caused by Scyther's Slash remained, Absol was never going to see again.

"Good, I saved him," the lizard breathed a sigh of relief " _No matter who it is, I can't just leave a Pokemon to die here, I'd be no better than the berserk Pokemon of the this world that way, no matter their reputation or who they are"_ he added internally. He then proceeded to sling the feline over his shoulder, and quizzically looked at the two mangled corpses over next to Absol.

"They're dead," the lizard nodded to the feline, "both dead, I've got to have mercy on them. I never knew them, but no one deserves to stay frozen in this miserable future forever." He walked calmly over to Crobat and Scyther's corpses, picked them up, walked over to the edge of the void and dropped both Pokemon in. They both fell a long, long way, being ominously swallowed up by the void that gave way to the descent into the planet's core, never to be heard of again…

The lizard then looked over at the feline slung over his shoulder, "I'll take you to the base of the rebellion, they'll take good care of you." He then began running out of Chasm Cave with Absol in tow and from there until he reached the rebellion's base, Sceptile said nothing more.

* * *

 **Wow, I got you there, didn't I? You probably thought that the 'green lizard' I was referring to was Grovyle and he was going to be the one to save Absol but nope, it's Sceptile. So, what role does Grovyle play in this story? Well, you'll just have to keep reading to find out!**


	3. Meeting

_Dark Hill, Base_

The base was crowded with four purple, gem-eyed gremlins chattering away with each other and a black-maned, blue-furred, yellow-eyed lion, prowling impatiently around the place, literally crackling with excess lightning. At the sign of this, one of the gremlins gasped and looked at the lion.

"Uh, L-Lord Luxray," he stammered "I-I'm sure Mistress Mism-"

However, before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a fearsome roar from the Gleam Eyes Pokemon.

"Be **quiet,** Sableye," he yelled, provoking the usual reaction of pure fear in the Darkness Pokemon's eyes, "what if our foe attacks us first? I was given orders by Master to stay in this place until Mismagius arrived," he spat in disgust, "but the motto of our tribe, passed down through the generations even before this dustball froze it's core is that we should always be the ones to attack first. How can we do that if we're constantly waiting for one of our comrades to show up? We'll just lead Dusclops right to us"

One of the Sableyes tried to respond, but Luxray's golden yellow eyes, coupled with a look that could pierce the armour of an Aggron silenced them instantly.

"I see that you're scared," he looked at the quivering gremlins, then smiled, showing his fangs while pacing around the opening of the hill "that's good, fear will only make you even stronger against the Dusclops that we might have to fight. Plus, I want you to remember something, I'm the master here, the alpha if you please. As long as you're under my command, you will listen to what I say. Got it? That's how it worked in my old tribe in Amp Plains. If one of us as a Luxio wasn't strong enough or wasn't quick enough, then they were left for dead. A Luxio had to challenge a pack leader to evolve and if they lost they were killed. Do you get it now? My tribe and Dialga's forces are both based on one key thing: fear. So if one of you are injured by that Dusclops, don't expect me to come rushing to your aid."

"B-But Lord," one of the braver Sableye yelped, "what happened to the tribe that made it so bent on fear?"

Luxray looked up at the colourless sky for a few moments, as if contemplating an answer. However, just before he was about to open his mouth, a psychic aura surrounded him and he was lifted into the air. When the psychic aura turned the surprised lion around, he wasn't shocked to see Mismagius there, her eyes glowing blue to indicate that she was using her psychic abilities to lift Luxray into the air.

"While I'm sure we're all very excited to learn the _long_ and _arduous_ history of your clan, Luxray," Mismagius said sarcastically, "we have work to do. Work that involves the recruiting of a certain cyclopic ghost to our ranks, so unless you five want to keep arguing, I suggest that we go **now**!"

She then released her psychic grip on Luxray and the lion smashed to the floor, groaning, "About time… you… showed up." the lion grumbled.

"Quiet, you overgrown mutt!" Mismagius yelled, "I was being strategic, if you've seen the things that this Dusclops could do, you would have acted the same way!"

"Oh, I **have** seen the things Dusclops can do," Luxray barked, electricity discharging around his fur and mane, "and that's why I wanted to go right away. If he caught us like we are, defenceless and unprepared, then we would have lost easily."

Mismagius sighed "You know, sometimes I think that the only reason that Master Dialga keeps you around to begin with is for your brute strength," she said in frustration, "If you were paying attention to what Dialga said, you would have noticed that Dusclops only exists in the lower levels of Dark Hill, meaning, there's no way they would come up to this clearing for any reason. Now, I could kill you for your disobedience and ignorance, but I can't beat Dusclops by myself and plus, you're part of the plan as well. Remember that."

With that, the mage floated away to get ready for the long dungeon trekking they had ahead of them. However, the Sableye then started chattering among themselves.

"Wheh-heh-heh, Lord Luxray's been put in his place, wheh-heh-heh!" they were smiling at this point while Luxray growled. He knew he couldn't do anything because as much as he hated to admit it, Mismagius was far more powerful than him and if he tried to be mean to the Sableye, Mismagius would be extremely annoyed with him.

"Alright," Mismagius sighed, doing a gesture that looked extremely similar to arm-folding, even though she didn't have any arms, "I'm ready to go. If you five decide to get at each other's throats again," she stared over the Luxray and Sableye, eyes glowing blue with annoyance and hidden anger, "then I'll get Tartarus to punish you accordingly."

Luxray and Sableye gulped in unison and looked at each other. They knew nothing about this 'Tartarus' save his reputation; he was extremely ruthless and merciless to everyone in the dark future and did not tolerate failure. Apparently, some of Dialga's henchmen had been put in a fate worse than death because of him.

And so, as they entered the hill of utter darkness, not a single other word was spoken, not by Mismagius, nor by Luxray or Sableye.

* * *

Thanks to Mismagius' power and Ghost-type attacks and Luxray's Crunch, Dark Hill was actually quite easy for them. While they did run into one of the dreaded monster houses along the way, where lots of wild Pokemon would unleash a group ambush on unsuspecting travelers, but because of their long range attacks such as Mismagius' Ominous Wind and Luxray's Discharge, even that wasn't a problem for the weary travelers. Luxray's 'job' as it were was to scan the walls with his X-ray vision to look for a sign of Dusclops or the elusive Reaper Cloth. Then, once one of them was found, Mismagius would float through the wall that concealed them to get to them. However, so far, Luxray only found Apples and Elixirs which, while still useful, weren't what they were looking for.

"Gah, how long is this going to take, Mismagius," Luxray was extremely pissed as his fangs enclosed around the scorpion-like tail of a wild Gliscor, making it yelp in pain.

"Well, it would be quicker if you weren't being such a blood knight to literally **every single wild Pokemon around here**!" Mismagius growled, finishing off the flying scorpion with a single, glowing Power Gem and sending Gliscor crashing to the ground, fainted.

"Hoo-hoo-hoo-hah! You two don't seem to get along well at all now, do you?"

The group of six suddenly froze in utter silence. They all knew the perpetrator of this voice, they had seen him before, he had easily destroyed the group that had hunted for them last. Luxray and Mismagius looked at each other in unison, then Luxray's eyes gleamed and he began scanning the walls for signs of the cyclopean powerhouse, he didn't need Mismagius to tell him how to do that. Whilst he was doing this, the Sableye were looking around in the room for Dusclops in pure fear, they didn't want the cyclops to come for them and kill them just like they saw.

"Where are you, Dusclops," Mismagius asked, "come on out! We don't want to fight you, we just want to talk, but we can't do that if we don't know where you are!"

"And why should I reveal myself to you?" the voice echoed around the room, "I have lived alone, without purpose for my entire life. What can you offer me, that I don't already have. What meaning can you give me, to live."

"Who cares about the meaning of living!" Luxray bristled up, his fur glowing with energy, "this world died long ago. Self-preservation is our on-"

At this, Mismagius' eyes glowed blue and Luxray was silenced for the second time that day.

"You'll have to excuse my friend here," Mismagius told the Dusclops, "he can be a little… hot-headed at times."

"So I can see," the voice replied blankly, "you know, I've been trailing you four for quite a while now. Don't take it personally, it was just to see what your motives were and why you were here. Forgive me for asking, but are you searching for the Reaper Cloth?"

Mismagius nodded nervously. Luxray had to admit, even she looked a little tense at this time and who could blame her? Luxray may have wanted to go quickly before, but that was before he knew Dusclops had trapped them and pursued them effortlessly. It was clear that he wasn't only a good battler, but a great tactician as well.

At this point, all the shadows in the room condensed into one omnipresent one and like an undead warrior rising up out of his grave, the ghost's shadow and his ethereal body formed in front of Dialga's henchmen.

"A noble and just thing to do for an insane god," Dusclops sighed, floating around the mislead wanderers, "however, there is one thing your 'almighty god' was wrong about. I'd recommend looking away. After all, you don't want to get sucked into _Mu_ now, do you?"

"Mu?" Luxray asked, his eyes psychically shut by Mismagius' telekinesis whilst the Sableye were turned.

"Yes," Dusclops began to explain as the air began to become sucked towards him, "you see, Mu is the area of nothingness. When most Pokemon die, depending on their actions, they are sent to either the Hall of Origin to live with Arceus or the Distortion World, ruled over by the devil known as Giratina. However, Pokemon who are killed by me, the embodiment of the blank nothingness known as the void, and are killed by having their spirits absorbed, they never find true peace, their disembodied souls are left to wonder Mu forever..." As he finished his nightmarish description of the place, the sucking noise had stopped and Dusclops had produced in his hand a black cloth that Mismagius gasped upon seeing. The amount of souls inside it, the amount of souls Dusclops must have absorbed was uncountable. Noticing Luxray frothing in anger and about to charge, she once more held him back.

"Why!" he snarled, mouth frothing in anger as Mismagius struggled to keep a firm grip on the lion, " **why kill all of those Pokemon? There must be hundreds. Thousands even, and all this time, you had the Reaper Cloth, you never even needed us!"**

"That's a very good question, Luxray," Dusclops responded after a few seconds, "and I could ask you or Mismagius some of the exact same questions. Why do you kill several members of the rebellion of which Dialga speaks of. You'll find our answers are the same: we both do it in self-defence," he turned to Mismagius, "I assume that if the rebellion is successful in going back in time, changing history and stopping the planet's paralysis, then everyone here will die?"

"Correct." Mismagius nodded grimly, "we'll be erased from history."

"Well, there's your answer," Dusclops whispered, holding the eerie cloth up "I do not wish to kill, I never did, especially when it's like this, I try to avoid it whenever possible. But I need to because if I don't, I'll remain like this forever. There are a lot of hostile Pokemon in this world, Pokemon whose self important pride gets the better of them. I try to intimidate them into leaving, but if they refuse," he sighed, "I don't give them any second chances. You see, while this Reaper Cloth may be imbued with spiritual energy, it constantly loses it in a world where time is frozen over, possibly because the spirits aren't as effective and freeze in time more effectively. If the Reaper Cloth loses all it's energy, it just… disappears and as far as I know, there isn't another one in this world."

"But, why do you need the Reaper Cloth so badly?" Mismagius asked, trying to comfort the Beckon Pokemon by floating over to him.

"If I am exposed to a mystical energy when holding both the Reaper Cloth and the Link Cable, my evolution triggers," Dusclops explained, "I evolve into Dusknoir, the Gripper Pokemon and my power over _Mu_ becomes a lot more controlled and stable than it is now as well as increasing my power a lot. I want to evolve because if I don't, I'll just keep feeding on the souls of the wild Pokemon here. I want evolution, more than anything!" he was beginning to cry, tears of inky blackness formed as his emotional levels rose, "I've observed you talking about your goals to stop the rebellion from changing history and I completely sympathise with you! This world… it's the only one we've got and I can't stand disappearing without anyone being able to remember me! So please, help me get a Link Cable, help me to evolve and I swear I'll pledge my loyalty to Dialga!"

At this, Mismagius just hovered over to Dusclops and hugged him, her veil like arms extending and proceeding to wrap around the ghost, drawing him in tight to comfort the troubled, fellow ghost and to her surprise, Dusclops returned the hug

"I'm sorry," she 'sobbed,' "I had no idea you had to suffer so much in order to evolve into your next form. I don't care how long it takes, we'll find the Link Cable, we'll evolve you and then, we'll work together to keep this planet alive! You'll finally be able to enjoy the feeling of living, of doing something right!"

However, there was something Luxray, Dusclops and Sableye didn't realise about Mismagius' hug, or their opinions on the matter might have changed entirely. Using the hug to cover her face from everyone, Mismagius was _smirking,_ her face twisted into a malicious grin.

" _Perfect,"_ She thought to herself in her dark mind, " _that was easier than I expected, I didn't even have to battle Dusclops. All I needed to do was play on his emotions and what he wanted to do and he's Dialga's- no Tartarus' forever. Keh heh heh, Dusclops, you've fallen right into Tartarus' trap. Everything is going exactly according to plan. We'll go to Dialga to ask about the location of a link cable. Then, we'll go back and use Dialga's temporal power to trigger your evolution."_

"Alright," Dusclops remarked, ending his hug with Mismagius "well, we'd better get going back to Temporal Tower to ask about the whereabouts of a Link Cable."

"That will be unnecessary," Mismagius explained, "I can directly instigate telepathic communication with Master Dialga even here," activating said telepathic communication, she began to speak with the crazed god " _Master Dialga,"_ she thought, " _I have successfully persuaded Dusclops to join my side with no casualties. It seems that he is sympathetic to our goals."_

" _YOU HAVE DONE WELL, MISMAGIUS,"_ the god paused for a few seconds before responding, " _PRAY TELL, WHAT OF THE REAPER CLOTH, HAS LUXRAY FOUND WHAT HE HAS BEEN LOOKING FOR YET?"_

" _Well, you see, that's the thing,"_ Mismagius responded " _Dusclops already has the Reaper Cloth, but he can't use it to boost his power yet because he needs it in conjunction with a Link Cable along with your primordial, temporal power. Do you know where we can find one?"_

A long pause was enacted by the Temporal Pokemon before he finally decided to speak up " _UNFORTUNATELY, AS YOU KNOW, MY POWER IS NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE. I MISCALCULATED THAT DUSCLOPS WAS ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE REAPER CLOTH, SO IT MAY TAKE ME A WHILE TO LOCATE THE LINK CABLE AND BE ABSOLUTELY SURE WHERE IT IS. I WILL SCOUR THE LAND TO FIND A SUITABLE SPECIMEN, BUT UNTIL THEN, I WILL GET YOU TO SCOUR THIS FUTURE. SEE IF THERE ARE ANY MORE MEMBERS OF THE REBELLION TO TARGET. SPREAD THE WORD OF THEIR TEMPORAL GOD TO THE POKEMON OF THE FUTURE AND WHEN I FINALLY GIVE YOU THE ORDER TO MOVE, YOU WILL BE READY."_

" _Right, got it,"_ Mismagius responded emotionlessly before cutting off communication with the god and turning to Dusclops, Luxray and the Sableye, "well, looks like we'll be on the fields for a while, guys, we'll have to gather as many supplies as possible for the long road ahead of us."

"Yes!" Luxray roared in anticipation of the upcoming events, "more chances to test my strength and battle honourably till death do us part!"

"Wah!" the Sableye chattered showing their cowardice and fear, "we don't want to adventure, we want to stay here!"

"B-but Mismagius," Dusclops gasped, his eye wide open, "you have to realise that if I'm out in the open, with so many wild Pokemon, I'll have to kill some and send their souls to Mu, right."

"Well, there's no other way, is there?" Mismagius replied, implying Dusclops' evolution sarcastically, "think of it this way, you're going to be the hero of this world, the savior of every Pokemon here that's afraid of dying, even the suicidal rebellion. All those that oppose you and try to prevent you from following that path, they are the ones who are hurting this world, they are the ones who are truly evil."

Dusclops turned and nodded "I guess- that would justify the deaths a little," he said hesitantly, "better a few Pokemon than all of the species."

"That's the spirit!" Mismagius exclaimed with feigned emotion, she then turned to Luxray and the Sableye, "alright," she began to explain Dialga's plan, "Dialga needs a bit of time to look for this Link Cable, so we're going to have to do a routinely scout of this area. Also, Dusclops has to send Pokemon's spirits to an eternity of Mu every now and then to sustain the spiritual energy of the Reaper Cloth so if you see one of the rebellion members or any Pokemon that won't give up, we kill them and Dusclops absorbs their spirits. We set up camp here and leave in 6 hours. Any questions?"

"Can I keep first watch?" Luxray asked, apparently eager to fight.

Mismagius sighed "Yes Luxray, you may keep first watch, might as well make yourself useful." Luxray scowled, but still obeyed orders, crouching on one of the rocks in the clearing, ready to pounce on anything that needed to be put in it's place.

And so, after a dinner of rotting Apples and Oran Berries, Mismagius, Dusclops and the four Sableye slept restlessly, sometimes hearing electrical crackles in the air or the sound of Luxray's teeth ripping into something...

* * *

 **And that's Chapter 3: Meeting, done! I had quite a bit of fun in characterising Mismagius and Luxray in this chapter and I'd imagine them to fit quite well into the story. Bonus points if you've figured out who Dusclops is by now!**

 **Q &A Time!**

Q: I Like this story and I Like absol, update soon please. P. S. There Will be a riolu?

 **A: I don't have any plans to incorporate a Riolu into the story. Sorry to disappoint, I just don't think a baby Pokemon would be able to survive well in a dark future such as the one in these games. However, I could incorporate a Lucario into the story, either as part of the rebellion or as a singular agent.**

 **As for Absol, I'm glad you like him! If you haven't noticed already, he's based on the Absol that joins forces with you in Red Rescue Team / Blue Rescue Team. He's definitely my favourite non-legendary Dark-type and I had to find a way to incorporate him into the story somehow, so I'm glad you like his character, he's certainly what I would describe as an old veteran hero, being the only one left.**


	4. Acceptance

They say that Sceptile is the fastest Grass-type in existence, especially when it was in the grasslands. Even the ones of the future. This Sceptile of the rebellion was no exception, in fact, due to his training, many believed he was even faster. Using his Agility, he hopped through dungeons in a short amount of time, managing to avoid all the feral Pokemon he encountered on his way. Everything just seemed to whiz past him like a blur. It was a good thing he had Agility as well. Even Dialga's henchmen couldn't see how fast he was, but thanks to him holding the unconscious Absol, the trip was a bit slower than it would have been. Probably a bad thing too, as if they could catch him, Dialga's spies might have outnumbered and killed him. He was powerful enough to take down one, maybe two if he had a significant type advantage, but as far as he knew, Dialga's henchmen were never dumb enough to not go in forests alone. Mainly, Sceptile's job was to hunt for food and Oran Berries and he had to use these Oran Berries to replenish him at times. He guessed the 1,100 km trip to the rebellion's base to take eighty, maybe ninety minutes at most.

Eventually, he reached his destination, " _There it is,"_ Sceptile thought to himself, " _Celestial Cavern."_

A massive cave loomed ahead of Sceptile and he knew he would have to cease his Mach 0.6 Agility, if only to fit inside the cavern. Suddenly, just before he was about to go inside the cavern, he heard a low groan from Absol, causing the grass lizard to crane his neck towards the feline and place him on the ground, curiously tilting his head to hear the Disaster Pokemon's part of the story.

"W-Where the hell am I?" Absol groaned, regaining consciousness and swivelling his head from side to side to try and get an overview of his surroundings, "I know this future's dark but this is ridiculous! Wait, no, don't tell me." he began shaking his head rapidly, as if in denial of what could have happened to him and raggedly breathing in and out again, "the last thing I remember was that Scyther cutting through my vision. No… don't tell me I've been cap-"

"Calm down," Sceptile commanded relaxing Absol that the voice coming wasn't Weavile, "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your comrades, the Crobat and the Scyther… they're dead, whatever ended them almost killed you as well. You were lucky to escape alive, let alone blind."

"What?" Absol responded, "whoever you are, those Pokemon aren't my friends, they told me that they were bounty hunters who wanted to hand me to Dialga on a silver platter, I think that the Scyther was even the one who blinded me." at this, Sceptile gasped.

"T-Then who killed the Scyther and the Crobat?" Sceptile asked.

"I-I don't know," Absol said in a fearful manner, "all I can remember was that Scyther cleaving my eyes clean off and then… I just went berserk, I remember slashing through bodies, I felt blood splash onto my face, **I** killed them. I want to pretend I don't have remorse for all the deaths I've caused in my defence, but that would be lying, Charlie and Charmy would be so pissed with me now." his face would have been literally brimming with tears as Sceptile just stood there, shocked to the core that the blind and almost helpless Pokemon before him could be responsible for such carnage.

"I'll understand if you want to leave me alone now," Absol continued, "you probably hate me now. Since the day of my birth, I have been treated with nothing but contempt. I guess it's no different here, so thanks for saving me, stranger, but you'll probably just cast me out as a demon-"

At this, Sceptile just threw his arms around the feline Pokemon and gave him a big hug, Absol was obviously surprised by this, giving a small gasp at being accepted. "Hey," he began in a calm, comforting tone, "the last thing you need right now is rejection. Believe me, I've killed Pokemon before as well. As long as you did it in self-defence, that's fine. I know what it feels like, the guilt, the pain, the loss, but if you keep in your head what you're fighting for, then your determination shall know no bounds. So, what do you fight for? I assume that Dialga must observe you as a pretty big pest in his side if he sent such powerful bounty hunters after you."

"Funny thing," Absol replied, beginning to trust and like this stranger even more due to his philosophy and ethics, "I've lived for seven hundred years. I've predicted famine, disaster, hunger and war," Sceptile gasped again, knowing that this meant Absol had been around **before** the planet's paralysis had taken effect, "I remember what this world was like before this place turned to a , it was full of colour and ripeness, there was lots of food growing on trees. I want to return this world to how it once was, no matter how long it takes. I have to! For everyone here!"

Sceptile nodded, "Then I think you're going to like the group of people you're going to meet once we get through this cave," he grinned, "they and I, we all share the same morals and goals of bringing this land of darkness back to how it once was. Just follow the sound of my footsteps as you walk through the cavern, your hearing should have enhanced to make up for your lack of sight."

Absol nodded and began to walk towards the cave with the lizard. Whoever he was, Absol liked him. His voice was very trustworthy and sounded extremely genuine and he reminded him somewhat of Charlie in that he was willing to help the most unlikeable Pokemon.

"So, I don't believe I caught your name?" Absol asked, wanting to know the name of his new friend.

"I'm Sceptile of the Temporal Rebellion," Sceptile responded, "pleased to meet you, how about your name?"

"Absol of Team FlameSeed," Absol answered, using the team name he had used while exploring with Charlie and Charmy in the past, "thanks for saving my life, Sceptile."

Sceptile chuckled, "Don't worry about it," he grinned, "I would have done the same for any Pokemon."

And so the two new friends, both hiding the wounds of long and deadly battles within them, set upon their way to go to the base of the rebellion.

For the most part, the journey through the Celestial Cavern was fairly uneventful. It was mostly cosmic Pokemon such as Clefairy, Starmie, Lunatone and Solrock that called this place home. To be honest, they were actually quite friendly with Sceptile and didn't attack him much at all. For Absol, this was especially weird as pretty much every Pokemon he had seen before in the dark future had attacked him out of fury and desperation.

"Our leader keeps this place alive," Sceptile exclaimed to the confused feline, "none of the wild Pokemon will attack anyone from the rebellion."

"Still doesn't explain why they're not attacking me," Absol wondered as a Clefairy floated towards him, playfully dancing around him, "I mean, I'm not exactly a familiar face here."

"Because you're with me, and we're not actively trying to beat each other to death, they must have realised that you and I are allies." Sceptile responded.

"Understood," Absol nodded, happy that there were some Pokemon not affected by the dark future like the Pokemon he'd seen thus far.

They carried on like this for quite a while until they came into a small clearing in the cave with a ladder going down it. There was also a grate at the front of the ladder, not that Absol could see it, of course, but you had to step on it to gain access to what was beneath…

Sceptile knew this, of course, "Follow my lead," he nodded to Absol, who nodded back. Sceptile then stepped on the grate before a telepathic voice filled his head.

" _The footprint is Sceptile's,"_ the voice said in recognition, " _you're free to go."_

Before Sceptile went down the ladder, he gestured for Absol to come with him.

" _Right."_ Absol nodded before, using his enhanced hearing, he followed Sceptile. As soon as he stepped on the grate, the telepathic voice sounded in his head.

" _The footprint is Absol's,"_ the voice said, sounding somewhat puzzled, " _this is… unfamiliar."_

"Calm yourself, Gardevoir," Sceptile responded to the Pokemon's telepathy, "he's with me."

" _I can see his aura,"_ Gardevoir projected " _I detect no ill will to sabotage the rebellion here, but the emotions inside his head, they're… astounding. I sense guilt, loneliness suffering and more!"_

Despite himself, Absol did feel slightly unnerved by this specific Gardevoir. Was it the fact that she was… familiar? No, it couldn't be, there was no way she could have survived that long. However, his queries were brought to a stop when Gardevoir's question came at him.

" _Absol?"_ Gardevoir asked, " _are you the same Absol who explored with Charlie and Charmy long ago to stop the disasters happening on Earth?"_

"Y-Yes," Absol remarked, surprised, "and I'm guessing you're the same Gardevoir from the myth and the legend of Ninetales. How did you survive for this long? Three hundred years is a long time for a Gardevoir." then, a thought came to him, " _unless…"_ he thought.

" _All will be explained,"_ Gardevoir responded, " _for now though, just get inside our base."_

Absol nodded, following the sound of Sceptile's footsteps going down the ladder, it took a while, he almost tripped at a few points, but he made it down.

All of a sudden, a little noise came rustling and echoing from down a hallway. Then, a cry rung out through the halls.

"Father!" he heard small footsteps and then Sceptile was tackled by a small, gecko-like figure who climbed atop the reptile's shoulders and buried his head in Sceptile's chest, "I missed you so much, I thought that maybe…"

"Calm down Treecko," Sceptile responded, lovingly hugging his pre-evolved form, "I would never let anything happen to you, I'll make sure of it."

Treecko nodded, "I know, I just sometimes think that you might go too far and then Mismagius might confront you and you'll…" Treecko stopped, tears in his eyes to try and process what he was going to say, "you'll end up like mother."

Sceptile winced a bit, Treecko had clearly struck a nerve, but he had to be brave, brave and strong for Treecko.

"Hey," he petted the sobbing gecko, "I'll never let anything happen to you, got that? You've inherited the burning will of both me and your mother and as long as you know what you're fighting for, you'll be fine."

Treecko nodded before pointing at Absol, "Father? Who's your friend there?"

"I'm Absol," Absol responded in a friendly tone, "your father is a great Pokemon, kid, he rescued me from near certain death. I'm honoured to know him and his son."

"Yeah," the young Treecko said gleefully and cutely but also with a sense of pride, "he's my father after all!"

"Aw," Sceptile swooned, "cut it out, you're making me blush with all those kind words."

At this the three Pokemon laughed, with Absol trying humorously to figure out what a blushing Sceptile would look like. However, at that moment, Absol was interrupted by another telepathic burst from Gardevoir.

" _Absol?"_ she asked, " _could you come to my room for a second, just turn away from Sceptile and Treecko to the right and walk forward for a few steps. I'll guide you telepathically."_

Nodding, Absol waved goodbye to Treecko and Sceptile, his new-found friends and, following Gardevoir's directions, walked into a room where he sensed a high amount of spiritual essence and energy. He couldn't see Gardevoir, but he visibly heard her gasp when he came into the room completely eyeless.

"Oh my Arceus," Gardevoir gasped, "Absol, your eyes!"

"I'll deal with it," the stoic hero replied, "anyway, what do you need to explain, what have you been doing for the past 300 years and most importantly, how have you even survived this long!"

"Yes," Gardevoir spoke in a beautiful sing-song voice, it was pretty, but laced with sadness, "after I was freed from Ninetales' curse by Gengar, I realised something, I relied too much on that human. Sure, teamwork is important, but there is a time and place where there is too much of it. After my stint in Team FlameSeed, I decided I wanted to be more independent, that I wanted to form my own guild, my own Rescue Team. So, I formed a new guild, I joined up with the Medicham from Team Meanies and we found a Lopunny on our travels. She may have looked like a leader on the outside, but in reality, I was the one pulling the strings from behind while she was the charismatic one, able to round people up and get them to listen, just like Charmy. We encountered many strangers, friends and foes alike."

Absol nodded as he barely felt Gardevoir's presence shifting around a bit, the Embrace Pokemon pacing around as she continued her story. However, due to his sad state and memories, the Disaster Pokemon flinched a little at the pang of loneliness that was brought up every time either of his beloved leaders were brought up.

"We called ourselves… Team Charm," she continued "and thanks to them, I succeeded in my goal. I was a proud and respected leader, no longer reliant on other people, but still able to fight effectively as a team. After the world was frozen, Team Charm was one of the many teams that were trying to find the root cause of the problem, but, you guessed it..."

* * *

 _An elderly Lopunny lay motionless on the ground, barely breathing in the world of the future, a keeling Gardevoir lying beside her, tears in her eyes, shaking the rabbit Pokemon._

" _Lopunny," she sobbed, "please, I'll get you an Oran Berry, I'll do anything, just please, I don't want to lose you as well, I've already lost Medicham!_

 _Lopunny looked up to Gardevoir, her eyes as soft and warm as when she first met her "Gardevoir…" she gasped, close to expiring, "don't let… my death be in vain, you've already become… the leader you wanted to be from the start, you're no longer… the damsel in distress, the cursed princess in the spirit world. Heh… you've truly come into your own, girl… You can stop the planet's paralysis, I know you can, you just need to find the right team first… people who'll support you to get there… to your goal._

" _Lopunny, I can give-"_

" _Hush, Gardevoir," the elderly hare replied, "the world needs you, you've spent long enough giving your life to others, now let me return what you've given so much for already…"_

 _As she spoke, mystical yellow orbs of energy began to flow off Lopunny and begin circling around Gardevoir. As soon as she realised what she realised what she was doing she gasped._

" _ **NO!**_ " _Gardevoir yelled, tears cascading down her cheeks like rivulets, "Lopunny please, not that move, losing Medicham was bad enough, but if I lost you, I don't think I could go on, I'd kill mys-"_

 _SMACK!_

 _Gardevoir fell back in surprise as she was slapped across the face by her partner, her white cheek bruised red as she gasped at Lopunny's strength as this time, it was the fading rabbit who was crying._

" _Don't you dare even think about it!" Lopunny growled angrily and sadly at the same time, grabbing Gardevoir aggressively, "how do think I would feel, huh? I'm giving my life to prolong yours so don't you dare talk about wasting it. What about Medicham? How would she feel? You're stronger than this, Gardevoir, I know it. You're not acting like the Gardevoir I know. The Gardevoir I know is the leader that everyone admired, when you were in a bad situation, you could always find a way around it. The Gardevoir I see before me isn't the real Gardevoir, so drop this defeatist attitude, missy and don't speak like you're going to waste everyone's life!"_

 _Gardevoir gasped, Lopunny's motivational speech being a massive wake-up call for her, "That's… right," she said, holding up her tiny white arms to the light that Lopunny's Healing Wish move was producing, "Lopunny's soul… it'll flow into me through Healing Wish… just to prolong my life, so even as Lopunny dies, her spirit will live in me…"_

" _That's right," Lopunny nodded, becoming transparent, "my role is over, but yours… is far from it…" and with that, Lopunny just… faded into nothingness, her soul having been given to Gardevoir entirely, the yellow spheres of light having been absorbed. And when the brief glimpse of light in the world of darkness had faded, Gardevoir just bent over… and wept._

* * *

"So, that's how it happened," Gardevoir remarked, "after Lopunny died, I founded the rebellion against this hell, it was for her and Medicham's memory. The Pokemon here all share the same goal"

"Wow… you must have been pretty resolute," Absol sighed, he too, however was also on the verge of crying, Gardevoir's story reminded him a lot of Charlie and Charmy, how they were willing to risk everything, up to and including their own lives to save the doomed planet from destruction. Suddenly, he felt Gardevoir's gentle fragile hands brushing against his white fur and encircling his neck. It was weird, usually he would only push people away, but he enjoyed the feeling of seeing an old friend. Someone who knew and cared about him.

And so, the lonely wanderer and the cursed princess embraced, remembering their companions and the great losses that they had suffered on their journey...

* * *

Luxray was prowling the camp where the group of Dialga's henchmen lay, it had irked him, for he had spent a long time searching for a worthy adversary but he had no success. Honestly, it was the whole reason he even agreed to do this stupid sensory duty in the first place was because he wanted to find a worthy foe but so far, the only adversaries he found were Ghost-types! Of course, they were no match for the lion Pokemon's powerful jaws. He was just about to go back to switch to Mismagius, but then, he saw **them.**

Blue eyes crackling with electricity, with hatred, with a challenge. Luxray knew exactly who these eyes belonged to and he was filled with only malice and contempt from the bottom of his soul as he vehemently spat the name out as if it were poison to him.

"Manectric!"

Of course, it was a well-known fact that back in the Amp Plains, the Luxray tribe and the Manectric tribe absolutely **hated** each other. Due to some misunderstanding they had before the planet's paralysis they were all at each other's throats and this particular Manectric was part of the rebellion. Luxray knew because of his eyes making them even worse enemies, but Luxray was going to settle things here and now…

They both gazed into each other's eyes, blue into yellow, but Manectric spoke first:

"Come on, Luxray, or do you want your puppet-master Mismagius to interfere with our battle?"

Luxray couldn't agree more, Mismagius already hated him for his blood knight tendencies. Plus, he wanted this battle to be fair and honourable and Mismagius and Dusclops would interfere too much. He spoke up, enraged in the worst possible way:

"Fine, let's do this!"

And so the two electric warriors rushed into the deeper depths of Dark Hill, ready to have their duel…

* * *

 **To those of you who were curious about the rebellion, I hope I didn't dissapoint. We only know Treecko, Sceptile, Gardevoir and Manectric now, but there will be more as the story progresses.**

 **And no, I am not going overboard with bringing in Pokemon from RRT/BRT, I swear Gardevoir will be the last one, I just wanted to character build a bit more.**

 **Alright, Q+A time**

Q: I have a question. Will Explorers!Hero be in this? If so, how would Absol react to a pre-transformed human?

 **A: Yes, the human hero from Explorers will be here in the story. However, they will not appear until around the middle-end part of the story for reasons I have yet to explain. Now, I have a question for you to ponder on… So far, I have shown no humans in this universe. So one might assume that humans might not therefore exist in the frozen world. So therefore, where would Explorers!Hero come from? (I'm not spoiling anything, don't worry.)**

 **As for how Absol would react, he would be quite surprised, probably. Maybe he'd think they would be the reincarnation of Charles, sent back to the Pokeverse by Arceus or Giratina to help them when in mortal peril. He's seen some pretty weird things in his time in the Frozen World so it wouldn't be unthinkable to him…**

 **Anyway, those are my two cents on the subject so… hope you have a good day everyone!**

 **PokeBallZOnline**


End file.
